Top Five Reasons eBay Sellers Fail

The way you build a successful business in not any different from
how an eBay business should be built. All the different aspects have to work perfectly – sales, marketing,
pricing, customer service, among others. The difference with eBay is that there are certain unique aspects
which require sheer creativity in order to make your business succeed.

For instance, potential buyers on eBay can easily establish your reputation by checking your
feedback score and DSR rating, which is easily accessible for every user to see. On the other hand, customers
in a shopping mall have no direct means of establishing a store’s reputation. So with eBay, you have to do more on
the customer service front, otherwise your business might sink.

Here are the top five reasons why eBay sellers fail.

1. Poor Reputation

Unknown to many new eBay sellers, your reputation on eBay can make or break your business. Reputation is
determined by a feedback score and seller ratings. The minimum feedback score that can earn you a rating is 10, and
is shown by a yellow star. The highest is above 1,000,000 ratings and is shown by a silver shooting star.

The fact is you can never achieve much with a poor rating as some seasoned eBay bidders never bother with
sellers that have ratings under 50. It takes long to build a good feedback score so you need to take it a day at a
time, but have a strategy in place.

Note that it’s important to start as a buyer because feedback comments from sellers matter too. Exceptional
service is very important for positive feedback, especially when you’re just starting, so put more emphasis on it,
particularly when communicating with potential customers.

2. Paying No Attention To The Competition

Another major reason why sellers fail on eBay is poor choice of product. Many new sellers tend to go for the hot
sellers, seemingly in-vogue items but in reality, selecting the hottest product might be a recipe for disaster.

The reasoning is simple: every seller will try to sell the hottest item at the moment, which means that you need
a lot of money to stock up enough inventory that will cover for the slim profit margins. In other words, you’ll be
in direct competition with big sellers who can afford to drastically cut their prices but because they sell in
volumes, they can make up for the price reductions.

Obviously, small sellers fall on the side automatically, so avoid hot sellers and find a niche with favorable
competition.

3. Poor Auction Titles and Descriptions

In case you weren’t aware, more than 60 percent of eBay users
search for items to buy using the site’s search tool.
Like normal search engines, the eBay search tool tries to pick listings that are most relevant to the
search.

So, if you want bidders to easily find auctions, use the most relevant keywords when writing your titles and
descriptions.

4. Poor or No Photos

How else can a potential buyer get an idea of what a product looks like without photos? And if the photos are
there but are of poor quality, they’ll not achieve anything and you’ll end up losing potential customers. Use
photos that are clear, revealing and accurate so that you don’t leave bidders guessing.

5. Failure to Manage Costs

The thing about costs is simple: if you don’t understand them, you will fail to manage them. A lot of new
sellers get taken up by the whole eBay selling exciting and pay no attention to the costs involved. There are all
sorts of eBay fees that can easily affect your bottom line if you don’t understand how they are structured.
Therefore, endeavor to understand eBay costs before you listing your auctions.